Into The Mist (Land of Elyon) (25 page)

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for there before us -- a long ways off -- rose the Five Stone Pillars.

"A deal is a deal," answered Roland. "I think I'll keep a hold of it for the moment."

How I wished I could have it back, to peer through its lens and see more clearly the place we approached.

"I can't believe we're here!" cried Yipes.

"And now to your questions," Roland offered. "Which I do agree I owe you answers to. Soon enough you'll get your chance to see all of the Five Stone Pillars, though I must warn you that our approach is complicated and dangerous. It will take some work."

Roland slid the spyglass into his pocket and retreated to the wheel. "There are bridges dangling between the five fingers, and long lines leading down to the water below. A whole society has grown up here. This place has complications and dangers of its own. You'll discover this for yourselves soon enough."

"Will we meet Alistair?" asked Yipes.

"I'm an old man these days," said Roland. "And I'm afraid Sir Alistair Wakefield's time has long since passed."

I had done the math and known that there could be no other answer to the question Yipes had posed. And yet to hear Roland say it -- the finality of it -- was a little hard to take. I had carried a glimmer of hope that somehow we might meet him.

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"So the lost children have grown up?" I asked. "They have indeed."

"What will we find up there? On the Five Stone Pillars?" Yipes remained on the rail, perched there like a cat.

"Some things you wouldn't expect," Roland answered.

This sort of answer drove Yipes mad with curiosity. He bound off the rail, ran across the deck, and bunched Roland's pant legs in his tiny hands.

"Why must you torture me so?"

Roland laughed the kind of hearty laugh you might expect from a weathered man of the sea.

"I'm sorry, old friend, I just can't tell you. You'll have to see it for yourself."

Yipes let go of Roland's pants and slumped down on the deck. I came away from the rail and sat down, putting my arm around him.

"There's one thing more I must tell you," Roland continued. "I feel you deserve to know, though it is an unfortunate bit of bad news if you happen to be a group of friends sailing on the open water."

Yipes perked up, and we both rose back onto our feet together.

"Go ahead," said Yipes. "We can take it."

Roland smiled, but only a little, and then he told us the last of what he had to say before we prepared to make our approach to the Five Stone Pillars.

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"You remember what happened before -- when Grindall and the ogres were finally defeated and they fell into the pit?"

"You mean the terrible noise?"

Roland shook his head. "Not that. Do you recall how a part of The Land of Elyon broke off and slid into the Lonely Sea?"

I remembered. It was a monstrous feeling, like a rolling earthquake. Like the whole Land of Elyon was coming apart.

"After that -- when we were home in Lathbury for a time -- do you remember when I went off on my own and was away for a while?"

"I do remember that," said Yipes. "We looked for you. We kept checking the boat, thinking you were going to leave without us."

"I followed an old path."

"A path to where?" I asked.

"Into the Great Ravine, through a secret cave, and past an iron door."

"You didn't!" said Yipes.

"I wanted to see something for myself, something that had been troubling me."

Roland looked out toward the Five Stone Pillars and turned the wheel back a half turn to the left. He seemed to be trying very hard to make our approach along a certain line in his memory.

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"I went the way Thomas and I had gone, but when I got to the middle on the raft I let the current carry me where it would. It was dim for a long time, but then the Lake of Fire seemed to shimmer as it hadn't before. I rounded a corner with high stone walls, and the light grew brighter. Soon I came to a place where I saw what I'd hoped I wouldn't see."

"An opening," I whispered. A fierce chill ran through me as I began to put together what Roland was trying to tell us.

"A very big opening to the outside, to the rolling water of the Lonely Sea."

Yipes -- for all his curiosity and desire to know the truth -- seemed perplexed or unwilling to know the truth. Roland spun the wheel to the right once more, then came down on one knee and looked at Yipes and me.

"Abaddon is loose on the water -- a sea monster of unspeakable cruelty and power."

He stood up and took charge of the wheel. "An ancient evil roams these waters just as we do, searching for something."

"For what?" asked Yipes, his voice soft and shaking.

"For a new place to call home."

I looked off toward the Five Stone Pillars.

"Why did you bring us here?" I asked.

There was a long silence from our captain. I leaned over the rail and searched the sea for the slightest sign of a dark, moving shadow beneath the water.

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"To save them from the coming monster," he finally said. "To bring them back home, if only we can."

I looked up once more at the strange sight of the Five Stone Pillars growing closer, and heard a chill in Roland's voice as he gave a final word.

"We have arrived in the realm of lost children."

To be continued...

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